Back to Studio 8H, JT!

Justin Timberlake, everybody’s favorite SNL host, is going back for more.

Yes siree! JT will host Saturday Night Live for the fifth time on March 9.

Naturally, the multi-hyphenate also will serve as the night’s musical guest.

Timberlake will use his time on the show to not only make us laugh like it’s going out of style but also to promote his hotly anticipated 20/20 Experience album.

I smell another Emmy....

Photo: HipHopWired.com.

Hostage Patriarch

Dylan McDermott’s gonna play house with Toni Collette.

If their new CBS political thriller gets picked up for the fall, that is.

The actor has been cast alongside the erstwhile United States of Tara star in Hostages, the story of a family caught in the middle of a grand conspiracy that changes their lives forever.

McDermott will play a righteous FBI agent who plays a surprising role in the whole thing.

Photo: People.com.

Dome Guy

Last time we saw Mike Vogel on TV, he was playing a pilot on ABC’s short-lived Pan Am.

This summer, the cutie-patootie will be living Under the Dome.

Indeed, the Blue Valentine actor has booked the lead role on the CBS adaptation of Stephen King’s best-selling novel. Vogel will play the Army vet who arrives in the small town of Chester’s Mill on an oh-so-mysterious mission.

Britt Robertson, who was last seen on The CW’s The Secret Circle, and Twilight Saga star Rachelle Lefrevre are also on board the thriller.

Photo: WorldOfFemale.com.

Intelligence Man

Josh Holloway’s finally coming back to TV.

We can breathe now.

The Lost star will star in Intelligence, a drama pilot that CBS is prepping for the fall.

Holloway will play a top U.S. intelligence agent who has a microchip in his head that allows him to access the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Whatever that means, I just know the guy’s gonna rock my bones doing it.

Photo: ForcesOfGeek.com.

Their Lovely Baby Bump

Josh Duhamel and Fergie are expecting, y’all.

Just thought some of you might wanna know.

Awww!

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

As Miss Julie

Two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain’s meteoric rise in Hollywood is still full of steam.

The actress has signed on to star in Liv Ullmann’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, a play about an upstairs-type who breaks away from her family to hang out downstairs with the help during a summertime party.

Her life, of course, changes forever when she meets and falls for an older servant.

Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton reportedly are also on board the project.

Photo: Glamour.com.

Lady GaGa’s Original Move

My, my – Lady GaGa has gone and finally outdone Madonna: The 26-year-old entertainer has beaten the 54-year-old Queen of Pop in the race to needing a hip replacement.

I keed, I keed.

Although I might not be that far off.

You see, Mother Monster is injured – so much so she has called off the rest of her ongoing “Born This Way Ball Tour” (more than 20 dates in all).

Evidently, the singer sustained an injury during a show, powered through, and is now paying the pain piper.

Ouchie!

And get well soon, woman.

Photo: RollingStone.com.

A Noble Man for a Good Wife

The Emmy worthy John Noble is not taking to his laurels for a rest post-Fringe: The actor will be back in the telly real soon.

The Aussie has booked a guesting gig on The Good Wife, on an episode to air later this season.

The erstwhile Walter Bishop will play an old client of Alicia’s (Julianna Margulies), a man she looked after ’cause he was too litigious for his own good. The character, however, will appear via flashbacks.

Given The Good Wife’s penchant on-point casting of guest stars – and its leading to Emmy noms – I will trust Emmy voters will be extra-aware of the man come nomination season.

They better. The actor’s turn on Fringe has been woefully underappreciated.

Photo: FringeBloggers.com.

An Australian Woman in TV Boston

I recently read somewhere that Aussie actress Jacki Weaver had said – in recognition of her second Oscar nomination in like, three years (her supporting turn in Silver Linings Playbook is up for gold this season; she was previously nominated for 2010’s Animal Kingdom) – that she is amazed by how welcoming the United States have been to her.

And since the golden lady is here to stay, she’s gonna do TV.

Smart! That way she can keep going for edgy, buzzy parts while keeping a steady income.

Weaver has signed on to headline a new single camera comedy for CBS titled The McCarthys, playing the no-filter matriarch of a sports-obsessed Boston family.

If you saw the woman in Silver Linings Playbook then you know you have cause for excitement.

Photo: TheBrandRackley.wordpress.com.

Speed Girl

Ben and Kate may have met an untimely TV death sentence to limbo, but Dakota Johnson will live on.

The actress will appear in Need for Speed, an adaptation of the videogame franchise about the world of underground car racing, with Aaron Paul and Dominic Cooper.

No word on details regarding Johnson’s character, but the movie is scheduled to open a year from three days ago.

C’mon, Fox – don’t give up on Ben and Kate!

Photo: GoldDerby.com.

The New Hot Spot

Netflix is taking names and...wait, how does the expression go?

Whatever it is, the powers that be over there are doing just that. They’ve already scored millions of happy fans for reviving Arrested Development and launched the game-changing House of Cards, a buzzy original drama starring Kevin Spacey.

Now the streamer wants its share of the young adult market, so get ready to binge on Eli Roth’s Hemlock Grove come April.

Folks are talking up the series as the new Vampire Diaries because it features a good-looking cast of up-and-comers – like Eliana Jones and Landon Liboiron (TV’s Terra Nova) and Bill Skarsgård, brother of Alexander – and a supernatural theme.

I’m kinda into it because Famke Janssen is in it. And I heart her.

Click here for a trailer.

Photo: SciFiMafia.com.

America’s New Sweetheart’s Big Plan

Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy is large and in charge and here to stay.

Thank goodness.

The Bridesmaids scene-stealer and Emmy-winning star of TV’s Mike & Molly announced last week that she has not one, not two, but three new projects in the works under the production shingle she has launched with her actor-husband Ben Falcone, a.k.a. the man she hilariously accosted during the plane scene in Bridesmaids.

The couple is writing the secretive Michelle Darnell, in which they’ll co-star. And working on Cousin Irv from Mars, which is based on an upcoming book. And on the longly titled Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!), which is based on a memoir by some dude named Douglas Brown.

Busy girl. I likey.

Oh, and on top of everything, she is looking to co-direct her long-gestating raunchy comedy Tammy herself. The Help director Tate Taylor and TV helmer Beth McCarthy reportedly were previously eyed for the gig.

McCarthy is currently in theaters in the comedy Identity Thief opposite Jason Bateman.

Photo: Celebspin.com.

Hot Set Pair

Dayum, Walk of Shame – I cannot wait for you to come out.

If box office success were assured on the strength of a casual on-set pic, then I must say Elizabeth Banks and James Marsden have a big hit in their hands.

The pair looked gorge while shooting the comedy in L.A. last week. Banks is already quite the sunny B, but that yellow is taking her to a whole ’nother level.

Oof!

Photo: People.com.

Directing Paltrow

Before you get excited, I don’t Gwyneth but Jake.

Indeed, Jake Paltrow is stepping behind the camera once again, to direct Michael Shannon (from the upcoming Man of Steel), Nicholas Hoult, and Elle Fanning in his self-written Young Ones. 

The project is a futuristic thriller where water is the most scarce, most valuable resource in a very dangerous world.

How very Waterworld-sounding.

J. Palt’s last movie was 2007’s The Last Night, which starred his sister G.P., Penélope Cruz, and Martin Freeman.

Photo: CineMagia.ro.

Four Guy

Alex Pettyfer has a Beyoncé complex: Kid’s all about the four.

Exhibit A: He starred in I Am Number Four.

Exhibit B: He might be playing a character named Four in the forthcoming Divergent.

I wonder if he is into fourways....

Anyway, Shailene Woodley is starring in the adaptation of the popular future dystopia-set novel about a girl dead-set on breaking from the authoritarian ways of a government that divides people based on human traits – as is, officially, Oscar winner Kate Winslet, btw. The British bad boy would play her male lead.

This could finally break him as the new Robert Pattinson.

Photo: Cosmopolitan.sg.

Making Letting Go Funny

Life post-30 Rock is looking good for Tina Fey.

The multi-hyphenate is already hard at work on the Muppets sequel...she has Admission with Paul Rudd coming up in the spring, and now, she could be teaming up with – Acca-cool Alert! – Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore.

The project that would bring them together? A comedy titled The Nest.

Both Fey and Moore are circling the project, about a couple of sisters who find out their parents are selling their childhood home and the one last crazy weekend they decide to have together reminiscing and finally growing up in the house.

Sounds cute and funny and, yeah, cool. Call Amy Poehler, dye her hair brown a little (for a change), check the gate.

Photo: E! Online.

She Needs a Miracle

You give Lauren Graham a holiday, and she will celebrate.

The star of TV’s Parenthood is getting paired up for the big screen with her NBC chum Joel McHale (TV’s Community) in A Friggin’ Chrismas Miracle.

Graham will play one half of a married couple forced into spending Jesus’ b-day with their loony extended family. Things take a turn for the wackier when, on Christmas Eve, he realizes he’s left all of his son’s presents back at home. A race to retrieve ’em – with his pops, to be played by Robin Williams – ensues.

As, hopefully, will hilarity.

Photo: MoviePhotoGallery.com.

Big Shoe Gal

Kristen Stewart and my girl Elizabeth Banks are teaming up to inspire and shrink Jim Sturgess, respectively.

The actress will co-star in The Big Shoe for Secretary director Steven Shainberg.

Sturgess will play an artiste of a shoe designer who strikes out on his own after his mother (Susan Sarandon) suggests he get into the lucrative knock-off business. Stewart and Banks comes into the picture when mama hires them to do her bidding.

Familiar manipulation – fun.

Photo: WSJ.com.

Mama Snow

The powers that be over at Once Upon a Time have done such a good job with the casting of the Snow ladies.

Which I like – I hate it when TV families look nothing alike.

I mean, Bailee Madison totally gives major young Ginnifer Goodwin, and now they’ve cast Rena Sofer (TV’s Melrose Place) as young Snow White’s previously unseen mama.

Good goin’, I say.

Anyway, the actress will make her debut as Queen Eva on a March episode via flashbacks that will reveal a surprising connection to one of the characters that we already know.

And the plot keeps on thickenin’.

Photo: OnceUponATimeFans.co.uk.

Here Come...the Craigs, Broadway

I will go to New York for this – you can bet on it.

Yeah, yeah, I know I often say I think there’s a quick Big Apple run in my horizon every time someone I like goes to Broadway (sometimes I have – just ask Lauren Graham...or not), but this time I mean it som’in’ fiercely serious: Daniel Craig is looking to light up the Great White Way again.

Only this time he isn’t planning on doing it with Hugh Jackman, with whom he starred in A Steady Rain back in 2009, but with his real-life wife, Rachel Weisz, who would be making her New York stage debut.

Urgh, fine...I won’t get jealous.

The couple is circling the staging of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, which would see them playing a married couple crumbling in reverse chronology due to her affair with one of his friends.

Sounds like a challenging thing to pull off at the theater, so I guess it’s a good thing that 10-time Tony nominee Mike Nicholls is in talks to direct the play.

A West End production of Betrayal with Kristin Scott Thomas and Douglas Henshall is being mounted in May, while the Great White Way staging is set for the fall.

Photo: Zimbio.com.